Places I like to go

Monday, February 21, 2011

Skull Defekts

My review of what’s going to be one of my favorite records of 2011 runs today at Dusted. (By coincidence, someone else’s review of another one of my favorites is right next to it. Read Mason Jones’ take on Psychic Paramount here, if you like.)

Of Skull Defekts, I said:Most of the cuts are founded on insistent, repetitive rhythms, hard eighths and quarters that are punched out by drums, but amplified by clanking, menacing guitars. The sound is physically propulsive, enveloping and mildly psychoactive. The beat pounds hard on the most lizardly parts of the brain, bringing a catharsis, a sheer rush of physicality. Add to this Higgs layering dank, ominous and priestly intonations over the galloping drums, and you have an aesthetic that is as engrossing as it is disturbing. You can’t look. You can’t look away.